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• A multi-scale method is presented for simulating boreholes within regional models. • A radial flow model is linked to a regional groundwater model through OpenMI. • The method provides flexibility to use existing regional groundwater models. • The sustainable yield of a borehole can be assessed in the context of climate change. A new multi-scale groundwater modelling methodology is presented to simulate pumped water levels in abstraction boreholes within regional groundwater models, providing a robust tool for assessing the sustainable yield of supply boreholes and improving our understanding of groundwater availability during drought. A 3D borehole-scale model, which solves the Darcy-Forchheimer equation in cylindrical co-ordinates to simulate both linear and non-linear radial flow to a borehole in a heterogeneous aquifer, is embedded within a Cartesian grid, using a hybrid radial-Cartesian finite difference method. The local-scale model is coupled to a regional groundwater model, ZOOMQ3D, using the OpenMI model linkage software, providing a flexible and efficient tool for assessing the behaviour of a groundwater source within its regional hydrogeological context during historic droughts and under climate change. The advantages of the new method are demonstrated through application to a Chalk supply borehole in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1970s, the embryonic UK research community in molecular simulation – physicists and physical chemists – organised itself around CCP5, one of a set of Collaborative Computational Projects in different fields. CCP5 acted to develop and use the software required by an evolving and expanding scientific agenda, to exploit quickly and efficiently the revolution in computing hardware and to educate and nurture the careers of future generations of researchers in the field. This collaboration formally began in 1980, and is still fully active now, 40 years later. Today, molecular simulation techniques, many of them pioneered by CCP5, are now used very widely, including in several other CCPs in the UK's current family of Collaborative Computational Projects. This article tells the story of molecular simulation in the UK, with CCP5 itself at centre stage, using the written records in the CCP archives. The authors were, or are, all personally involved in this story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Habitat suitability models (HSM) can improve our understanding of a species' ecology and are valuable tools for informing landscape-scale decisions. We can increase HSM predictive accuracy and derive more realistic conclusions by taking a multi-scale approach. However, this process is often statistically complex and computationally intensive. Objectives: We provide an easily implemented, flexible framework for sequential multi-level, multi-scale HSM and compare it to two other commonly-applied approaches: single-level, multi-scale HSM and their post-hoc combinations. Methods: Our framework implements scale optimisation and model tuning at each level in turn, from the highest (population range) to the lowest (e.g. foraging habitat) level, whilst incorporating output habitat suitability indices from a higher level as a predictor. We used MaxEnt and a species of conservation concern in Britain, the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), to demonstrate and compare multi-scale approaches. Results: Integrating models across levels, either by applying our framework, or by multiplying single-level model predictions, improved predictive performance over single-level models. Moreover, differences in the importance and direction of the species-environment associations highlight the potential for false inferences from single-level models or their post-hoc combinations. The single-level summer range model incorrectly identified a positive influence of heathland cover, whereas sequential multi-level models made biological sense and underlined this species' requirement for extensive broadleaf woodland cover, hedgerows and access to buildings for roosting in rural areas. Conclusions: We conclude that multi-level HSM appear superior to single-level, multi-scale approaches; models should be sequentially integrated across levels if information on species-environment relationships is of importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on various articles published in the November 2003 issue of the journal "Philosophical Magazine." The issue contains a selection of invited contributions to a symposium on multiscale modelling of nano and micromechanics organized as part of the First International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modelling, held in Great Britain from June 17-22, 2002. The conference was the first of its kind, laying the foundations for several active and exciting research areas dealing with modelling the complex behaviour of materials, spanning length and time scales from the atomic to the continuum. The author hopes that these articles will provide readers with the current state-of-the-art in this rapidly changing field, and will bring the scientific community a step closer to integrating different multiscale approaches.

The article offers information on the book programme of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) of Great Britain which is related to the food sciences.